The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-05
NOT SMOOTH SAILING.
The Difficulties Which Are I'm Mr.. sher.
mans Way OF Reaching the Presidential
Nomination.

The Difficulties Which Are in Mr.. shers
mans Way OF Reaching the Presidential
Nomination.
The boom for John Sherman as the
Republican candidate in 1888 is assum-
ing, under judicious management, very
promising proportions. Its most inter-
esting feature is its many-sldedness.
To large numbers of Republicans it
presents itself as relief from the
Blaine incubus under which they have
rested so long and which they have
found it SO difficult to throw of. To
others Sherman is the candidate of as
sured financial views who can carry
New York and possibly reconcile the
Mugwumps. To another class he is the
coming pacificator of the South who is
to rend asunder more effectively than
any other Republican the solidity of
that section.
Yet it is not all plain sailing even in
his own party for the friend of the
New York banks and the discoverer of
Eliza Pinkston. Two formidable OBJ
stacles lie in the channel through
which he must pass TO 4 nomination;
and there seems to be no present
method of passing or removing them.
The first is the opposition of the pro-
gressive Republicans, who believe,
like Senator Hawley, of Connecticut, in
local self-Sovernment and the abandon
ment of paternalism in Government.
Upon this point, for the purpose of
catching Southern support, Sherman
has irrevocably committed himself. In
his Southern speeches he avowed HIM
self heartily in favor of the principle
which lies at the bottom of the Blair
bill for aiding the States to educate the
rising generation. 1t was not a wholly
new attitude for him. He has always
been supporter of subsidies; and
there is no essential difference between
supporting one subsidy to aid an in
fluential monopoly and supporting
another 10 secure votes. Neither is
the attitude at variance with the gen
eral attitude Of the Republican party.
1t is exceedingly obnoxious, however,
To the better elements of the party; and
if Senator Sherman adheres to it he
Can not count on their support in con-
VentiOn.
Upon another point Senator Sher-
man is in rank antagOnism TO large
element of his party, though it Is not
so worthy or reputable an element as
that which opposes his subsidy no.
tons. While this element may be will
ing to cut loose from the "bloody
shirt" with all that the old war cry i'm
plies. it is determined to cling still to
the hypocritical hypothesis that the
party is the special guardian of moral
ideas. But Sherman has deliberately
declared against the moral idea"
dodge. In effect, he has proclaimed
the erasure from the party gonfalOn of
the cabaiistic ''g. O. p" In his letter
to the Young Republican Club of Vir-
ginia he distinctly outlined the future
of the Republican party as future de-
voted TO the development and the di-
versiiication of American history
There is to be no brooding over the
dead past, he says; no more crusading
against real or imaginary wrong. The
end and aim of the party, next to the
securing of its own continuance in
power, is business.
This will probably satisfy the pro-
nOmced protectionists in the party,
though many even Of these will regret
the abandonment of the SWIVEL and the
whine. But to IN immense faction in
the party the SWIVEL and the whine are
Indispensable. They would not know
what to do with themselves in party
that plants itself on a business issue
and refuses to plume itself upon its
devotion to the righting of wrongs.
And as a natural consequence this fac
ton can not support Sherman.
All of which goes to show that the
way of the aspirant TO a Presidential
nomination is hard. Detroit Free Press.